Severe

In late March 2017, three storm chasers died when their vehicles collided while chasing in Texas. With storm chasing season in full swing, it might be a good time to review some “rules” of storm chasing:

Avoid chasing alone - It might be best to have someone who is not as interested in storms take charge of the driving and pay attention to the road. If you’re new to chasing, go with someone who is more experienced and help give you the knowledge to keep you out of trouble.

Do not get closer to a tornado than it is wide (as a general rule, no closer than ¼ of a mile).

Have an escape route – plan your road options ahead of time, intercept paths, and highways.

Never trespass on private property in order to get a better view.

During heavy rain or poor visibility, it advised to slow down.

Watch out for water on the roads, especially on dirt roads. HP (or high precipitation cells) can produce torrential rainfall that flood roads or make them slick.

“North chasing” or “path chasing” – this means getting to the north of the path of the tornado where there is little precipitation to obstruct your view. Tornadoes usually travel from northwest to southeast, but sometimes their paths may change and the storms can make a left turn. (This is what happened during the May 31, 2013 El Reno, Oklahoma tornado, which was responsible for killing storm chasers Tim Samaras, Paul Samaras, and Carl Young).

Core punching – This means driving through the area of maximum radar reflectivity (usually to the northeast in tornadic supercells) in order to get a better view. This could also put you right in path of tornadic motion or through large hail. Core punching is sometimes necessary if you’re working for the media and collecting important visual information.

Night chasing – You will be relying on radar and may only be able to see the tornado if it is lit by lightning. It’s best to stay to the southwest of the tornado to be further away.

Trust your eyes – if a tornadic storm is at the edge of the radar, it could be affected by beam widening. (A radar beam widens as distance from the radar site increases and may contribution to underestimation of Doppler velocities by smoothing out details in the echo structure).

Storm chasing can provide valuable information, especially if chasers take a minute to report what they have seen to local authorities, including the location and timing of the event. Chasing is a constant learning process and can even be responsible for preventing future disasters and improve the science of tornadoes.